1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains generally to packing materials and, more particularly, to a machine for inflating and sealing preconfigured film materials to make an air-filled cushioning material which can be wrapped about an object to protect it in shipment and in storage.
2. Related Art
In recent years, air-filled packing materials have come into wide use as a cushioning material or void filler in shipping cartons and the like. The earliest such material to find wide acceptance was probably the material commonly known as bubble wrap which comes in the form of plastic sheets sealed together to form a number of relatively small, individual air-filled cells. Those materials are usually stored and shipped in an inflated state, which is not efficient.
More recently, air-filled packing and cushioning material shave been provided in an uninflated, but preconfigured form which can be inflated and sealed at the location or site where they are to be used. Such materials are relatively compact and are typically formed into rolls or stacked into boxes for shipment and storage. They come in a variety of different forms, including relatively large, individual cushions and sheets having rows of smaller, interconnected cells. The communication between the cells in a row is advantageous in that it permits the air to shift from between cells to absorb impact loads as well as permitting the material to conform more closely to the contour of objects wrapped in it. Examples of such materials are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,410,119 and 6,761,960. Heretofore, the width of such materials and the rate at which they can be inflated have been limited to some extent by difficulties in getting the air to flow to the chambers or cells located more remotely from the inflation point.